


try to sleep through the end of the world and bury me alive

by irismon



Series: The Opposite of Amnesia [1]
Category: Red vs. Blue
Genre: Arthurian legend - Freeform, King Arthur AU, Memories, Other, Reincarnation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-03
Updated: 2015-03-03
Packaged: 2018-03-16 02:41:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 570
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3471335
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/irismon/pseuds/irismon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Here is what the three of them have in common: the ghost of a memory, frustratingly fleeting as they grasp at it with mortal hands.<br/>Here is what the three of them remember: betrayal, frustration, an impossible choice between two loves.<br/>Here is what they do not: a life when the three of them were happy.</p>
            </blockquote>





	try to sleep through the end of the world and bury me alive

Tucker’s first clue is the sword. It’s not the fact that it’s an alien artefact, or that it only works for him, or any of the prophecy stuff (he’s pretty certain that was all a load of bullshit anyway). The real tell is the fact that he’s absolute shit with it.

Most weapons Tucker can get a handle on after fiddling with them for a couple minutes, but the sword throws him off every time. Most of it is the balance- he moves to compensate for a much heavier weapon, and it keeps throwing him flat on his face. The frustrating thing is he’s not even sure why; the only other swords he’s used are those shitty plastic ones you buy at party stores.

He trains himself out of it (fumble a plasma blade badly enough and it forces you to adapt), but the memory of it still nags on him.

(Much, much later, Tucker tells Donut to make a run for it with a sense of deja vu and a strange urge to give him the sword. He doesn’t, obviously, because the only real conversation he'd had with the guy was Donut telling him to get over being shot with a rocket launcher, and even if he liked the guy the sword wouldn’t do jack shit for him. But that’s another thing he’s left to wonder about).

Sister’s first clue is Tucker. Or, more accurately, it’s sex with Tucker. Which sounds kinda dumb, but she knows her sex, okay? She’s banged enough dudes to have realistic expectations for how the first round is gonna go, but Tucker’s not quite what she’s used to. He touches her like he already knows what she likes, even though they’ve never met before. (She thinks. She’s almost certain she’d have remembered an ass that nice). It’s not the best sex she’s ever had- that’d be difficult to beat- but it’s definitely the most intimate. After they finish Tucker holds her close and she lets him. It’s nice. She’s not sure why, but she’s not complaining.

(Later, but not that much later, the base is empty and the canyon nearly so. In the rare moments of quiet between her own music and the crazy guy at red base yelling about god-knows-what, Sister could swear she can hear something like church bells ringing. But it’s probably nothing).

Wash’s first clue is the silence. Agent Washington once warranted a friendly wave from the maintenance crew, or at least a couple bashful glances from the people who thought the freelancers were a little larger than life, but no one looks at recovery one. The few times he catches snippets of his name, it’s between gossips who whisper a little too loudly or people who go quiet when he turns the corner of the hallway unexpectedly. He sits in the uncomfortable silence of an empty pelican and turns his helmet back and forth, looking for the thing that marked him as a reject instead of an equal, but he never finds it. Wash listens to the wagon-wheel whirr of the engines as they fly back to base in silence.

(Much, much later, Doc will tell him that he can’t kill everyone he meets. “Why not?” he asks. The _"That’s what I did last time"_ goes unspoken.)

**  
**  


Here is what all three of them remember: the heavy wound of two-fold betrayal. Here is what they do not remember: why.

 

**Author's Note:**

> This is directly inspired by a post MdeCarabas made on tumblr about.... six months ago? That I noticed three months ago, brainstormed for two days, wrote in three, and then left to stew until I remembered it was here about a week ago.  
> Being a massive mythology nerd, there are some things that I understood perfectly but aren't clear to those who aren't familiar with Arthurian canon, so here's the run down. Tucker's allusions are to the sword in the stone and the returning of Excalibur by Sir Bedeviere as Arthur is dying. Sister's are to Guinevere and Arthur's marriage, and to the fact that after her husband's death Guinevere joined an abbey and became a nun. Wash's are to The Knight in the Cart and Lancelot's unfortunate habit of killing all the people he likes, specifically the sons of Lot. RIP in peace, Gawain.


End file.
